Television broadcasting stations provide video programming which can be transmitted as video signals by using general omni-directional antennae means for cost-free reception and display by home consumer television sets or commercial television outlets, for example, or by using suitable cable communication channels for reception by a more limited number of viewers who normally must pay a fee for the use of such cable broadcast and reception facilities.
When such video signals are transmitted and received for display on a conventional video display device, the video signals are then readily available and at no further cost can be simultaneously recorded on suitable video tape recorders, e.g., conventional video cassette recorders, for subsequent replay. The ability of viewers to record video programming, particularly, for example, motion pictures transmitted as video signals, tends to render any subsequent transmittal of such video programs or the sale of commercial video tapes thereof significantly less profitable for the broadcasters or the commercial producers of tapes thereof.
Such a situation has been aggravated from the point of view of the originating sources of such video signals by recent court decisions which have appeared to establish the principle that the tape recording of freely transmitted video signals is legitimate and cannot be made to bear a royalty payment or otherwise be controlled either by video program creators, by video program broadcasters, or by commercial tape producers. The situation is further aggravated by the growing market for video home recorders which continues to increase the number of potential viewers who can record broadcast video programs for later replay.
Such situation reduces considerably the value of the broadcast programming material, i.e. its value for the retransmission or the commercial recording thereof, and tends to reduce the revenue which broadcasters, and ultimately creators of video programming, might obtain for such purposes, e.g. from broadcast sponsors, who recognize the reduction in the number of viewers of video program re-runs, or from potential purchasers of commercially prepared video tapes.
In order to improve such situation for broadcasters, creators, and commercial recorders of video programs or motion pictures, it is desirable to devise a technique which will permit a viewer to receive a broadcast video signal for satisfactory display and viewing on a suitable video screen, i.e., a conventional TV receiver or monitor, but will prevent such viewer from recording the received video signal on currently available video recording devices, or future improved recording devices.
It is further desirable that any such technique not require the insertion of specific codes into the video signal for disabling the recording devices, which codes might be similarly disabled, and hence defeat the purpose thereof, by the recording device owners or distributors. Nor is it desirable that such technique include any processes which would limit or degrade in any significant and recognizable way the accurate display for viewing of such video signal on a video display device.
Insofar as can be determined there appears to be no known technique or device available in the market at the present time for providing techniques for handling video signals in order to achieve such purpose.